Seeing Sound with artist Diana Terry

Diana Terry has been working with sound artist Sophie Cooper for her latest project, Seeing Sound. As Diana’s practice is informed by her experience of being profoundly deaf, this experiment with sound is an interesting development. Sensory engagement through touch, handling materials and connecting with the landscape has been a core part of her work. Now, inspired by deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie’s description of hearing as an extreme form of touch, Diana has incorporated sound into her work. Diana says that this exhibition is about “the vibrations that nature makes in rivers, wind, rocks and trees” and that “hearing is about vibrations”, after all.

At the exhibition of Seeing Sound in Manchester last weekend, a soundscape created from field recordings is the backdrop to an installation in the upper gallery. All four seasons are represented through painted papers that have degraded through being buried in the landscape for many weeks at different times of the year. This is a technique Diana has used before, but this time she and Sophie have made audio recordings of the animals, birds and weather in the area. Sophie then created the atmospheric soundtrack.

Each season is also represented by Diana’s ceramic speakers, connected to the paintings with lines of gravel. As well as being effective at amplifying the sound, these pots are beautifully shaped and decorated.

Large ink drawings in the exhibition communicate Diana’s experience of sound and deafness, through sweeping brushstrokes and vibrant colours. There’s great energy in the drawings, such as Red Tinnitus, a spiral of raw, fiery colour. The project aims to explore sound beyond hearing, and proves that, by using different senses, there are many ways to experience and behold art, whatever the medium.